Hawaii Five-0 Recap: Ka Hana Malu (Inside Job)

Logo from the television program Hawaii Five-0. March 16, 2011. Wikimedia Commons/Xeworlebi

“Hawaii Five-0” Season 5 Episode 8 “Ka Hana Malu” (Inside Job) aired last Friday, Nov. 21, 2014 at 9:00 p.m. on CBS. In this episode, the team investigated the murder of a con man and his wife, only to reveal a disturbing truth. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarrett (Alex O’ Loughlin) received the surprise of his life. His Aunt Deb McGarrett (Carl Burnett) who was visiting Hawaii, was going to get married the following day to her boyfriend, Leonard Cassano (Frankie Valli). However, Steve learned the truth behind who Leonard really was after asking Jerry Ortega (Jorge Garcia) to check up on Leonard due to his suspicions about him. Read on to learn more about this episode.

The episode opened with a young couple in a sports car early in the morning. They ran into a Siberian Husky named Riley, who was owned by the Kealohas who lived nearby. After they returned Riley to its home, they discovered that David Kealoha and Kate Kealoha had been murdered.

At the airport, Lieutenant Command Steve McGarrett (Alex O’ Loughlin) greeted his Aunt Deb McGarrett (Carol Burnett). She immediately told him that she and his sister had no idea where his mother, Doris, was. She also told him that her brain tumor had shrunk. Leonard Cassano (Frankie Valli), her boyfriend, a retired shop teacher from Queens, was responsible for her changing her mind regarding seeking treatment for her cancer. Steve then found it interesting that Leonard handed out legal advice to a fellow passenger and tipped generously for a retired shop teacher. He became even more surprised when Aunt Deb announced that they were going to get married the following day. However, they were interrupted as Steve had to go to a crime scene.

Before they entered the crime scene, Steve told his partner, Detective Danny “Danno” Williams (Scott Caan) that he found Leonard strange. He did not seem to fit the bill of a retired shop teacher, especially as his hands were soft as if it had never held tools before. Because of this, they had asked some help from a conspiracy theorist friend of their, Jerry Ortega (Jorge Garcia).

They then met Lieutenant Detective Chin Ho Kelly (Daniel Dae Kim) and Dr. Max Bergman (Masi Oka) in the Kealoha’s living room. They discovered that David Kealoha had been hit in the head first with a shotgun. His wife then had turned around, and faced the killer, which resulted in her getting shot in the chest. The shooter had shot them from the lanai, which made it impossible for them to get any fingerprints or trace evidence that could help them figure out who the shooter was. Instead, they decided to pull up traffic camera footage for the area during the time of death so that they could pinpoint anyone who seemed suspicious. Steve then met Travis (Charlie Carver) and Jake Kealoha (Nathan Cress), who had been picked up as they had spent the night at their friend’s, Tai Gable’s, house. Later on, Mrs. Patti Gable confirmed that the boys had been home for the entire evening. They were then prevented from taking any further to the boys, as the family lawyer, Eugene Goodman (John Billingsley) told them to make an appointment with him if they needed to speak to the boys. The dog, Riley, then came up to them, but strangely enough, he seemed to attack both of the boys, which led them to believe that Riley was trying to tell them something.

At the Five-0 Headquarters, both Officer Kono Kalakaua (Grace Park) and Lou Grover (Chi McBride) could not find anything on the two boys. However, it turned out that many had wanted David Kealoha dead. He had been an investment banker, but when the bank took a turn for the worse. Instead of informing his clients, he had covered it up with an elaborate pyramid scheme. However, his company had gone bankrupt and lost all of his client’s money. To top it all off, it turned out that he was being investigated and that in a month or so, he would have been arrested, and all his money and assets would have been frozen. One of those who had lost all their money to David was the Gable Children’s Trust. It turned out that because of everything, Tai had not been able to collect half a million dollars worth of college funds. They then decided to pick him up as they had caught his car going around during the night of the murder.

However, before they left, Danny ran into Aunt Deb and Leonard who had just come from the courthouse as they had gotten their marriage license. Danny then solved the case of Leonard’s smooth hands as he had discovered that the engaged couple had gotten a manicure pedicure spa treatment during their cruise vacation.

When they went to pick up Tai, they ended up chasing his as he ran away from them on his scooter. At the interrogation room, they learned that he had run away from them. He had been selling weed to customers who rented out his company’s scooters. They also discovered that Tai had not been upset at all about losing his college funds as he claimed that he wasn’t “university material” anyway. He also told them that he had not brought out his car that night, which Jake and Travis sometimes borrowed, as he had fallen asleep after smoking a bowl of pot.

After bringing him home, they talked to Mrs. Patti Gable, a divorcee, who told them that David was demanding on the boys. They were also informed that their mother, Kate, had been discovered unconscious a month before as she had downed several prescription sleeping pills. Patti also informed them that the boys would have never hurt their mother, as they were close.

Jerry then called Steve, and informed him that he had been right to be suspicious of Leonard. It turned out that he was a former mob lawyer, who helped the Leoni family get away with murder. There were also rumors that Leonard also tampered with evidence in order to get the Leoni’s to beat their convictions.

Chin Ho then informed them that David had been paying a monthly fee on a ten million dollar insurance policy which he had recently upgraded. In case of his accidental death, which included “death by murder”, the boys, the beneficiaries, would receive double the payment, $ 20 million. As the government would not be able to touch the policy even if their accounts were frozen, everything seemed to point towards the boys. They then decided to get the boys alone, away from each other, to see how they would react to being subject to a polygraph.

At their lawyer’s office, Jake readily agreed, as they had no knowledge about the policy, while Travis was a little bit nervous. After Danny left him alone in a room, while they tested Jake, Travis called someone up on his phone and told the other person that they “had a problem.”

Meanwhile, Steve decided to tell Aunt Deb about Leonard’s past. To his surprise, he learned that she had known, and did not tell him as she knew that he would not have approved. She then told him that she truly loved him, and was happy to know that she would leave “this earth knowing that I experience the most life altering thing." She told him that hopefully, he would experience the same thing. She then asked about Catherine Rollins (Michelle Borth), who Steve had been dating when she last visited him. He then told her that Catherine had found the boy that they had been looking for in Afghanistan, who had been kidnaped by the Taliban. As she had been worried that the Taliban might come back for him, she decided to stay there, and teach at a little school. She also had told him “not to wait f or her” and that “she had found her place” there. Aunt Deb then asked Steve to walk her down the aisle.

Back at the lawyer’s office, they discovered that Jake had passed the polygraph, but Travis had gone missing. Chin Ho and Kono followed him to a motel, where he met up with Patti Gable. It turned out that they had both gone out the night beforehand and Travis had covered it up. It would prove against her during the custody battle between her and her ex-husband. Travis then told them that he wished that he had told his parents the night beforehand instead so that they would have argued, and because of that, then there might have been a possibility that the murderer might not have pushed through with the murders. As they ruled out the boys as suspects, they decided to take a look at the lawyer, because with the Kealohas dead, he would be entitled to a portion of the $ 20 million, as executor of the family’s trust and estate.

Steve then met up with Leonard who told him that he knew that Steve would have him checked out, given the nature of his work. He then told him that one day, while he was Gino Leoni’s lawyer, an envelope with a key to a locker, and a note that instructed him to destroy anything that was inside it, was left on his front door step. He found the package but did not do anything to it. He then gave the package to Steve for him to do anything he wanted with it, and told Steve that he wanted to spend his final months on Earth, as he had stage four leukemia, in making Deb happy.

However, that turned out to be a dead end as it seemed as if he was clean. However, Chin Ho discovered that the Kealohas had given their lawyer power over their bank accounts and that there had been large withdrawals of money before the accounts had been frozen. This money had been used to pay a “gun for hire” named Greg Barber. Whom they tracked down, and engaged in a shootout. At his apartment, Chin Ho discovered that he had been emailed pictures of the Kealoha house by Kate Kealoha.

It turned out that Kate had hired the gunman to kill herself and David so that the boys would be able to receive $ 20 million, instead of nothing, as all of their assets and accounts would be frozen. She had drugged the dog, Riley, with sleeping pills, which was why he had been so aggressive with the boys earlier. Steve then apologized for misjudging the boys as they were too honorable to actually accept the money from the policy, as they knew that it was “blood money.”

Later that afternoon, Steve told Danny that he was going to “accidentally forget” about the package for a few months before handing it to the New York District Attorney. They did this so Leonard and Deb would not have to deal with the fallout that it would cause. After all, Leonard was going to die in a few months, and all Steve wanted was for his aunt to be happy.

At the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, Steve walked his aunt down the aisle, where she sang a Gershwin brothers song to Leonard as part of her wedding vows.

And that was all for the recap on “Hawaii Five-0” Season 5 Episode 8 “Ka Hana Malu” (Inside Job). For more news, updates and recaps on “Hawaii Five-0” and other television shows, keep on following Movie News Guide (MNG).

About the author

Kitin Miranda enjoys writing, learning new things, telling stories, and doing theater. When she is not busy with her many projects, she can be found reading a good book, writing poetry or fiction, updating her blog, discovering new food places around her neighborhood, or watching American or Asian TV shows.